What is UX Design, and Making it Matter

User Experience (or, UX for short) is considered to be a rather new profession. While the wake of technology over the past 30 years definitely created a boom in the relevance of them, UX designers work on both digital, and touchable products that have been around for hundreds of years.

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Have you ever been using a new product, only to think to yourself; “This makes my life MORE difficult”?

Whether you realize it or not, the reason we stop using a product/service is that it interferes with our daily life in some way, be that through a large price tag, poor design, or something else surrounding the product.

To simplify it, I always like to give “the door” analogy, made popular by Don Norman, who is widely accepted “father” of UX design.

Think of push/pull door. I’m sure you can recall a few times where you’ve pushed on a pull door, leaving you looking like a scattered fool in the middle of a packed lobby. The truth is, you’re just like anyone else; as pretty as it may have been, that door’s design didn’t clearly tell you how to use it.

When it comes to your business, good design isn’t about how attractive something looks; it’s about how well it communicates what your business does, to the person who needs it.

There’s a saying we’ve all heard; “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Unfortunately, you and your customers may have a different idea of beauty. A UX Designer’s job is to advocate for your user's idea of beauty, so you stay focused on what matters to your customers, all the time!

So, how is this at all new? People have been doing this since the dawn of time, remember, the good invention is driven off solving users problems, not making something you think looks nice!

With this unique job title, there’s also a very unique way of finding your go-to-person. Even with 15+ years of experience, a user experience designer’s job is to advocate for your user, not confirm your biases.

Unfortunately, you’ll just never quite know if your new product is going to be a success, or fail until you’ve launched. Someone focused on pleasing the user will want nothing more than to put your product in front of them as fast as possible, whereas the majority of companies, (or should I say, people)  focus on releasing a product that makes themselves happy, leaving their customers confused, and going straight to their competitors.